Compact mass rapid transit car



FIGI

Oct. 31, 1967 J. B. GUIN 3,349,723

COMPACT MASS RAPID TRANSIT CAR Filed Aug. 13, 1965 2 Sheets-Sheet l Linus) I I I I I 5 INVENTOR.) 5%

Oct. 31;, 1967 J. B. eu m 3,349,723

COMPACT MASSRAPID TRANSIT CAR Filed A 13, 1965 2 Sheet-She et 2 INVENTOR.

United States Patent 3,349,723 COMPACT MASS RAPID TRANSIT CAR Joel B. Guin, 148 E. 48th St., New York, N.Y. 10017 Filed Aug. 13, 1965, Ser. No. 479,585 3 Claims. (Cl. 105344) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A number of sturdy rigid divider-support seat sections, mounted to the floor below and the roof above, run substantially down the center of the car throughout the length except for gaps at selected intervals and at the car ends for passengers to pass from one side of the car to the other. Along with the end-walls these sections constitute the principal roof support. Each section is designed to use some of the space around the seated human form that is normally wasted. In one arrangement seats facing right are recessed into the lower right part of the section while seats facing left are recessed into the upper left part of the same section, so the derrieres of the persons seated there are directly above the heads of the passengers facing right. Another arrangement has most passengers on each side of the section facing forward, with the seats echeloned upward like steps in a stairway, so that each persons after the first, who sits lowest, has his derriere just above and forward of the knees of the person behind him. One or more seats can face rearward, just above the lowest forward facing seats. Passengers are quickly loaded and unloaded through multiple, sliding, flexible wall sections which constitute most or all of the entire wall on each side of the car, and can be pulled up into the ceiling in unison or in succession, at selective speed, by appropriately attached motors in the roof.

This invention relates to a compact mass rapid transit car. The car has the following improvements over present cars:

All seats are concentrated in one long central row running the full length of the car except for the ends and two to four gaps for side-to-side passing, some of the seats being above or over and slightly to the side of others, steps being provided for resting feet and for climbing up, there being left two passages for standees, running the full length of the car, each one almost as wide as the standee aisle down the center of present cars;

Six to twelve flexible door sections take up nearly the entire sides, all but the motormans cabin at one end on each side, and can be opened all at once or in sequence to permit simultaneous loading or unloading over the length of the side next to the platform, each section being drawn up into a door section compartment on the top by a motor means, which retracts and extends the door section either by being attached to a shaft that rotates, or to a cable or cables that pull the door sections up and let them fall by gravity, the former having the advantage that the rotating shaft with the door sections attached can retract or extend them with more speed and delicate control, the latter having the advantage that a light door sec tion could easily be held up if someone should accidentally fall under the door;

Since the door segments can be thin and translucent and since they replace the doors and windows that now slide sideways into thick side walls or upward into thick walls, the result will be increased floor space and a much lighter car;

The seat sections mentioned above run from floor to ceiling and are made of thick, sturdy metal, since these are the only supports of the ceiling and roof between the beams on each end, but this thickness does not negate the 3,349,723 Patented Oct. 31, 1967 enormous weight saved by eliminating the thick walls all along each side of the car; and

An old idea but a needed improvement is a flexible ac- With respect to the latter improvement, it obviously.

pertains to conserving heat or cold air and keeping out dust and noise between stations while the car is moving at high speeds, since the side of the car is wide open in the stations, Fully half of the seats are at foot level. With reduced loading and unloading time, and the resultant ability to haul more people with the same number of cars, it is anticipated that rides will be shorter and standing less arduous.

The increased comfort and the time saved may be expected to bring back thousands of patrons who now avoid subways.

These objects and advantages will be clear and others will be apparent when the inclosed description is read in conjunction with the attached drawings in which FIG. 1 is a vertical section through a compact mass rapid transit car showing the retractable door system and one suggested seat arrangement to conserve space;

FIG. 2 is a front view of the seating system in FIG. 1, with seats arranged one over the other;

FIG. 3 is an enlargement of section 3 in FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a horizontal section along line 44 in FIG. 3 showing the seat structure fastened to the vertical divider-support;

FIG. 5 is a simplified sketch from the side showing a modified seating arrangement of the seats on one side of said divider-support, all seats facing forward instead of to the side;

FIG. 6 is a view of a car with theretractable door sections down;

FIG. 6A corresponds to FIG. 6 except that the doors have been retracted upward, revealing the seat arrangement;

FIG. 7 is an enlargement of the upper left hand corner of the car shown in FIG. 6;

FIG. 8 is an enlarged horizontal section along line 8-8 in FIG. 7 showing the over-lapping panel closures between two door panels or sections; and

FIG. 9 is an enlarged vertical section along line 99 in FIG. 7 showing the connection between two door segments.

Turning now to the drawings, FIG. 1 is a vertical section through a mass rapid transit car showing left and right side walls 11 and 11A, left and right roof sections 19 and 19A and left and right ceiling sections 20 and 20A respectively. Connected to the floor 1 is beam 2 attached to support beams 3 and 3A holding left and right brake and bearing devices 5 and 5A respectively through which projects shaft 4 having wheels 6 and 6A mounted to its left and right ends respectively. Closing the car are left and right retractable door panels or sections 16 and 16A respectively, both of which can be retracted upward into left and right hollow spaces 21 and 21A respectively by means of cables 17 and 17A respectively. These cables are retracted into motor unit 7, and can either be extended by force, if the cables are stiffened, or let fall by gravity: the latter method is preferred, to reduce friction and maintenance. The left and right bottom segments 25 and 25A respectively are covered by a resilient material to prevent bodily harm to anyone who should be caught under a door section when it comes down rapidly: said segments fit into left and right grooves 22 and 22A respectively within floor 1. Motor unit 7 may be controlled automatically or by the motorman: one simple control would be that afforded by having all doors open in a sequence starting with the door at the extreme right as soon as the train stops; as soon as the first door section is up one foot, the second section would start up; as soon as the second section is up one foot (and the first up two feet), the third section would start up; continuing thus till the last section (of ten to fifteen sections) has reached the top; since people are getting on and off at each of the sections even before they reach the top, an automatic signal can be given at the moment the last section has reached the top for the first section to be started down. Since it is expected that all essential loading and unloading in any one section can take place in two to three seconds at most, the closing signal might well be rushed up, to start as soon as the sixth or ninth section has reached the top, etc.: all such adjustments for speeding up the system can of course be done by simply changing the electronic controls. It is anticipated that the loading and unloading time for even the NY. city subway trains can be reduced from the present 60 to 150 seconds to 20 seconds.

Since the entire car is open, it would be easy for all but the aged, infirm and crippled to start getting off and getting on the cars even before the train stopped. This ad vantage could be exploited in various ways such as:

All aged, overly fat, invalid and very young passengers would be herded by the platform guard toward the ends of the platform sections nearest where the last door sections would be opening; posters on platforms and in cars plus loud speaker announcements would continually instruct them to stay at the same end of the car when they got on; all the youngsters and mature persons who are light on their feet could be nearer the ends of the platform sections closest to where the first door sections would open, and instructed to stay forward of the rear part of the car when they got on: thus, as the train pulled in the doors could start opening while it was still going 1-4 miles per hour, and those nearest these first-opening doors could start hopping off; and those nearest on the platform could start hopping on the cars; by the time the train came to a dead stop, most of the loading and unloading would be done; since very few old, infirm or very young ever dare get caught in the rush-hour scramble anyway, one or two platform guards could keep any strays from being knocked down and trampled on; all of which sums up to thisin many cases the motorman could start moving again as soon as the train stopped, since the same process of getting on and off could continue at slow speeds. Straphangers can grab handles 2424B on the left and 24A24C on the right, which are attached to and supported by supports 23 and 23A on left and right, held up by left bars 1213 and right bars 12A-13A. To further speed up the system, Super-Express trains could run during rush hours, which would never come to a complete stop, but would simply slow up at each station, the trains being forbidden to anyone not able to hop on and off and with no one to help them: such people could take the local train until the rush hour Super-Express trains had stopped, i.e. during the 45-60 minutes of peak crowds each day, the aged, infirm and weak would be advised that they could only ride the local trains.

Extending from floor to ceiling is divider-support section 8 to which is fastened seat structure 26 which is formed into lower seat 31 with back structures 29 and 29A. It also forms upper seat 30 with back structures 28 and 28A. Fastened to back structure 29 are steps 14 and for climbing to seat 30; and fastened to the back of structure 28C are steps 14A and 15A, for climbing to seat 300 (FIG. 2). Passengers 9 and 10 sit in seats 30 and 31 as shown.

FIG. 2 is a view from the left on the two seat panels of FIG. 1 from the side, and also the seat panels on each side of them. Each panel consists of one upper and one lower double seat, all separated by vertical divisions 8,

8A, 8B and 8C, extending from floor 1 to ceiling 20. The arrangement is best described by citing the numbers of the passengers. Passengers 10A on seat 31A, '9 on seat 30 and 1013 on seat 3115 face front, toward the viewer. Pasengers 9A and 913 on seat 30C, 19 on seat 31 and 9D on seat 3013 face away from the viewer. In this spacesaving arrangement, passenger 9B sits essentially on top of passenger 10A, 9 on top of 1! etc. i.e. the one above and the one below take only the space normally required for one passenger, Since none of the seat spaces are cancelled by doors and since only 3 or 4 narrow gaps are needed for passengers to move from one side of the car to the other, this one row of upper and lower seat sections running the full length of the car and rigidly fastened to both floor and ceiling, will both seat more passengers than the rows on both sides of present cars, such as those in the N.Y. city system, but also serves as an adequate support for ceiling and roof between the car ends. The chief advantage is that almost as much room is left on each side of the row of seat sections for standees, as now found in the entire standee section running down the center of NY. subway cars. Added to these space economies is the complete elimination of the thick side walls now required for furnishing wall support and a chamber into which all doors and windows can be retracted, and to support the heavy ceiling and roof. It is estimated that the over-all passenger capacity in the same amount of floor space is to greater than the latest cars used on subways.

FIG. 3 is an enlargement of section 3 in FIG. 1 showing seat structure 26 fastened to seat divider 8. The structure is essentially one piece of metal and each seat section is stamped in such way as to produce both upper and lower seats and the backs for them in one stamping operation.

FIG. 4 is a horizontal section along line 4-4 in FIG. 3, showing fastening means 27 (the preferred form being by welding) by which structure 26 is fastened to seat divider 8.

FIG. 5 is a side view of a modified seat arrangement. Lower seat 32, middle seat 33, upper seat 34, and top seat 35 are staggered lengthwise along the side of the divider-support metal section 8A running from floor to ceiling. These seats are exactly duplicated on the other side of divider-support 8A, or may be slightly staggered to allow more room for the hips and shoulders which are wider than the knees.

FIG. 6 is a side view of subway car 45 with the retractable door panel sections 16 in down position. The car has wheels 37 running on rails 38, supported by ties 39, and is connected by beams 49 and 40A to cars on the left and right respectively, the beams from each pair of cars meeting in structure 41. A flexible pleated or folded structure 42, similar to that used between R.R. pullman cars and constructed to improve air-conditionability may be placed between each pair of cars. The car roofs have compartments 47 each of which contains a motor for drawing up a door panel section by cable means from each side, or two motors, one for drawing up a section on opposite sides, or one motor with two shafts and counter gears, for drawing up the sections on opposite sides.

FIG. 6A is another view of the car in FIG. 6 with door panel sections 44 and 44A in up position, having been retracted into compartment 47. The seating of FIGS. 1 and 2 is sketched to show the numbers of upper seats 30 and lower seats 31 in place.

FIG. 7 shows an enlargement of the upper left-hand corner of FIG. 6 showing details of door panel sections 44 and 44A, having joined segments 4? meeting at hingesection 50, the separate panel sections coming together at section joint 36. At the left door section 44 fits into opening 51 within structure 46, which may be the end of the car or the motormans cabin. Left and right motor compartments 7 and 7A respectively have rope openings (or cable openings) 48 and 48A respectively, through which extend ropes 17 and 17A attached to door panel sections 44 and 44A respectively at catch-tabs 17B and 17C respectively. The ropes 17 and 17A are retractable by motor units 7 and 7A.

FIG. 8 is an enlarged section along line 8-8 in FIG. 7 showing two door segments 49A and 49B having flexible closure parts 52 and 53 respectively which dove-tail as shown.

FIG. 9 is an enlarged vertical section along line 9-9 in FIG. 7 showing two door segments 49C and 49D connected by interlocking structures 54 and 55 which are in turn merely extensions of the segments 49C and 49D respectively, the former fitting around a cylindrical structure part of the latter and rotatable around imaginary axis 56.

The car has the express purpose of moving masses of people rapidly both within and between large cities. To further expedite movement an invention is now being perfected by the present inventor for moving platform strips at variable speeds that will enable even the old and infirm to get on and oil the cars while moving thus eliminating all stops completely, except those for emergencies, repairs and replacements of material, and for change of crews. An application for patent on this invention will be filed within a few weeks.

I claim:

1. An improved mass rapid transit car capable of hold ing more people than present cars having the same floor space, and of loading and unloading them in much less time, the invention comprising:

a floor mounted upon and supported by a sub-floor structure;

floor beams attached to and mounted upon the ends of the floor;

a roof section attached to and supported by said floor beams;

a row of rigid divider-support seat sections running the full length of said car substantially in the middle thereof, said divider-support seat sections running continuously the full car length except for the end areas and a plurality of gaps in between to permit passengers to go from one side of the car to the other, each of said divider-support seat sections being attached fixedly to and supported by said floor and being fixedly attached to and supporting said roof section which is rigidly stabilized thereby; said divider-support seat sections constituting the principal supports for the roof intermediate the end walls of said car;

said roof mounted above said rigid divider-support seat sections and to said roof sections which are attached to said floor beams;

a plurality of rounded hollow spaces at intervals along and beneath said roof, into each of which spaces a flexible door panel section can be retracted;

motor compartments mounted at the top of said roof at intervals with separate motors designed to retract said door sections; multiple cable means, at least one of which is attached to one of said motors within said motor compartments, the opposite end being attached to one of said flexible door panel sections; plurality of flexible door panel sections extending longitudinally on each side of said car and constituting the side-walls thereof, and being supported by the roof section, each said door section being attached to and retractable by at least one of said cable means and consisting of a large number of horizontal segments each of which has a cylindrical part that fits rotatably within a hollow cylindrical groove in another segment so they may rotate movably through a limited arc to permit retraction around the curved top edge of the ceiling under said roof; and

junction means at the side of each of said door panel sections.

2. A compact rapid-transit car as described in claim 1, said rounded hollow spaces being in two parallel rows on each side of the center-line of said roof, each space being designed to most easily receive, contain and then let out the segments of the door panel section just below it,

said door panel sections being retracted into said hollow spaces and extended therefrom by said motor means, and

the hollow space just opposite being situated and designed to receive, contain and let out the segments of the door panel section just opposite in the car.

3. A compact rapid-transit car as described in claim 1, said rounded hollow spaces being arranged in pairs one above the other, between said ceiling and roof,

the lower of each pair serving to receive, contain and let out said door panel section below it on one side of said car,

the upper of each pair serving to receive, contain and let out that door panel section directly opposite in the car, and

said door panel sections being ordinarily retracted into one of said motor compartments above it in said roof by one of said motor units.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 769,423 9/ 1904 Wilson.

1,150,679 8/1915 Jones et al. -340 1,217,174 2/1917 Hedlcy et a1. 105-340 1,568,855 1/1926 Lawson 105-340 2,409,037 10/1946 Guth -113 XR 2,813,494 11/1957 Haman et a1 105-340 2,861,277 11/ 1958 Hermann.

3,233,561 2/1966 Yelin 105-355 ARTHUR L. LA POINT, Primary Examiner. DRAYTON E, HOFFMAN, Examiner. 

1. AN IMPROVED MASS RAPID TRANSIT CAR CAPABLE OF HOLDING MORE PEOPLE THAN PRESENT CARS HAVING THE SAME FLOOR SPACE, AND OF LOADING AND UNLOADING THEM IN MUCH LESS TIME, THE INVENTION COMPRISING: A FLOOR MOUNTED UPON AND SUPPORTED BY A SUB-FLOOR STRUCTURE; FLOOR BEAMS ATTACHED TO AND MOUNTED UPON THE ENDS OF THE FLOOR; A ROOF SECTION ATTACHED TO AND SUPPORTED BY SAID FLOOR BEAMS; A ROW OF RIGID DIVIDER-SUPPORT SEAT SECTIONS RUNNING THE FULL LENGTH OF SAID CAR SUBSTANTIALLY IN THE MIDDLE THEREOF, SAID DIVIDER-SUPPORT SEAT SECTIONS RUNNING CONTINUOUSLY THE FULL CAR LENGTH EXCEPT FOR THE END AREAS AND A PLURALITY OF GAPS IN BETWEEN TO PERMIT PASSENGERS TO GO FROM ONE SIDE OF THE CAR TO THE OTHER, EACH OF SAID DIVIDER-SUPPORT SEAT SECTIONS BEING ATTACHED FIXEDLY TO AND SUPPORTED BY SAID FLOOR AND BEING FIXEDLY ATTACHED TO AND SUPPORTING SAID ROOF SECTION WHICH IS RIGIDLY STABILIZED THEREBY; SAID DIVIDER-SUPPORT SEAT SECTIONS CONSTITUTING THE PRINCIPAL SUPPORTS FOR THE ROOF INTERMEDIATE THE END WALLS OF SAID CAR; SAID ROOF MOUNTED ABOVE SAID RIGID DIVIDER-SUPPORT SEAT SECTIONS AND TO SAID ROOF SECTIONS WHICH ARE ATTACHED TO SAID FLOOR BEAMS; A PLURALITY OF ROUNDED HOLLOW SPACES AT INTERVALS ALONG AND BENEATH SAID ROOF, INTO EACH OF WHICH SPACES A FLEXIBLE DOOR PANEL SECTION CAN BE RETRACTED; MOTOR COMPARTMENTS MOUNTED AT THE TOP OF SAID ROOF AT INTERVALS WITH SEPARATE MOTORS DESIGNED TO RETRACT SAID DOOR SECTIONS; MULTIPLE CABLE MEANS, AT LEAST ONE OF WHICH IS ATTACHED TO ONE OF SAID MOTORS WITHIN SAID MOTOR COMPARTMENTS, THE OPPOSITE END BEING ATTACHED TO ONE OF SAID FLEXIBLE DOOR PANEL SECTIONS; A PLURALITY OF FLEXIBLE DOOR PANEL SECTIONS EXTENDING LONGITUDINALLY ON EACH SIDE OF SAID CAR AND CONSTITUTING THE SIDE-WALLS, THEREOF, AND BEING SUPPORTED BY THE ROOF SECTION, EACH SAID DOOR SECTION BEING ATTACHED TO AND RETRACTABLE BY AT LEAST ONE OF SAID CABLE MEANS AND CONSISTING OF A LARGE NUMBER OF HORIZONTAL SEGMENTS EACH OF WHICH HAS A CYLINDRICAL PART THAT FITS ROTATABLY WITHIN A HOLLOW CYLINDRICAL GROOVE IN ANOTHER SEGMENT SO THEY MAY ROTATE MOVABLY THROUGH A LIMITED ARC TO PERMIT RETRACTION AROUND THE CURVED TOP EDGE OF THE CEILING UNDER SAID ROOF; AND JUNCTION MEANS AT THE SIDE OF EACH OF SAID DOOR PANEL SECTIONS. 